Hi! Have had the good fortune to be able to visit Europe regularly of late. Going to go again this summer, and in the early stages have an itinerary put together that is to my family's liking but not optimal. Please help with suggestion for improving it!
A few facts: Two active parents, one active 8 year old. Travelling in late August. We like bikes, culture/sightseeing but not in excess, being around local people living ordinary life. We like small historic cities and real rural villages with more than a tourist economy. We love good food, wine and beer. We are comfortable self-sufficient bike tourers, do it every trip with kid on trail-a-bike.
Here is what's sketched out so far:
Fly into Brussels at 9:15am. Train to center, Rent simple touring bikes. Lunch. Pedal a couple of hours to a nice small Belgian city (maybe Mechelen or Leuven).
5 nights riding in Belgium (including first night). Visiting towns like Mons, Lier, Veurne, Ghent. These towns are quite spread out so the itinerary isn't set, but these are the type of towns we are interested in visiting.
Back to Brussels first thing after 5th night, train or bike depending on where we are. Drop bikes. TGV to Paris (in 90 minutes! Fast!)
2 nights in Paris. This is short, but we've been before several times. Really our kid want to go more than we do. 8 year old will see the Eiffel Tower, eat a crepe, feed some pigeons, and maybe tourist-cruise the river for and hour and be good. We will all of course enjoy this brief city break.
Train to Tours. Rent bikes.
5 nights Cycling the Loire Valley - we like food and wine and quaint. As a reference we absolutely love Alsace from Strasbourg to Colmar, to the little wine villages. Which villages/cities should we stay in/visit? Which chateaus to see?
Early out the last morning. Fly to Munich or Innsbruck for Nantes or Paris. Hopefully early enough to rent a car to drive to our most beloved place in the Alps somewhere west of Fussen.
4 night in these Alps. It's a place that has never been mentioned to me on a forum (including here last year). It is beautifully set with real working alpine village, lifts for hiking, swimming lakes, clanging cowbells in the meadows, onion domed churches, gorgeous chunky granite massifs towering with alpenglow. Very affordable, no tour buses, and didn't encounter one person from an English speaking country in four days last year. Good tourist infrastructure too, just geared to local markets - food really good in particular. We've been to Berchtesgaden which is wonderful, and Berner OL which can't be matched for gazing upon giant mountains, but this place to us is preferable. I won't write the name here but if you PM me and will be discriminate about publicizing happy to tell you where!
Drive back to Munich or Innsbruck.
1 night Munich or Innsbruck. Fly out to USA.
So there it is as it stand. I don't like three things about it (at least). 1) I prefer the "mountain break" part of the trip to be in the middle of the trip, not at the end. It's the vacation from the vacation part, staying in one place for 4 night, cooking in, etc. But too much travel to get to our Alps spot and back to France again the tour the Loire. 2) in the same vein I really like the short big city visit (Paris) to be at the end of the trip. At this point we are fully adjusted to life in Europe and need some extra stimulation, and have the sense of home is coming soon so better rally and makes the most of it. I'd like to fly out of Paris and be there last. The travel day to the Alps West of Fussen is tough - we can do it but it's a grind of a day.
Any advice on how to reorder things? Should we ditch Belgium and start with a bike tour in Germany? Ditch our west of Fussen alpine paradise and try instead to find something as good in the French Alps out of Lyon or Geneva?
Any and all suggestions are most appreciated! Henry
